MMi Daily Iron Ore Report (Feb 3)

The Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group released a production report today. The report showed that iron ore shipments in the second quarter increased by 4.7% from the first quarter, benefiting from the surge in Chinese demand.

A total of 89 vessels carrying 14.65 million mt of iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports during December 6-12, SMM estimates.

Xintian Steel Group Zhasan Iron & Steel was required to eliminate all of its capacity to comply with Tianjin’s steel industry policies following the issuance of Work Plan to Fight and Prevent Pollution in 2019 on July 3, 2018. As of September 17, 2020, Zhasan Iron & Steel has shut down completely, resulting in a daily loss of 8,000 mt of pig iron output. The mill mainly produced steel billets and had two 1,260 m³ blast furnaces and two 120 mt converters, with annual steel capacity of 3 million mt.

A total of 93 vessels carrying 15.22 million mt of iron ore arrived at eight major Chinese ports during July 19-25, SMM estimates. That fell 1.67 million mt from the prior week but rose 810,000 mt from the previous year.

SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports increased 2.31 million mt in the week ended July 24 to 105.21 million mt, larger than a 1.48 million mt gain in the previous week.

Coronavirus strikes, causing chaos in the Chinese iron ore market, just as the population prepares to come back to work following the National Lunar New Year Holiday.

2019 dawned with the recent dam collapse in Brazil,shrinking supplies and post-holiday stockpiling conspiring to keep low-alumina premiums at high levels.

SMM statistics showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports declined 350,000 mt from a week ago to 116.45 million mt as of November 8.

Mill demand rose as rebar futures rose over yesterday. DCE iron ore futures showed some volatility.

DCE iron ore futures continued to recover, pushing the physical port stock market higher, quotes rising by 5-10 yuan/mt.